FanPost

Irish Rookies in the NFL: Post-Preseason Roundup

The NFL regular season starts this weekend and while I don't know about the rest of you, the addition of NFL games to the weekend slate is a joyous aftershock to last weekend's kickoff of the NCAA football season.

My hometown professional team, the Detroit Lions, had as many as five former Notre Dame players on their roster this preseason and as I followed them I got curious about this year's ND rookies fighting for roster spots elsewhere in the league.

K Kyle Brindza

Notre Dame's kicker finished his college career making 117/119 extra points (98%), 57/81 field goals (70%), and seven tackles. He handled punts in 2013 and 2014 and managed a 64% touchback rate on kickoffs his senior year. After playing a role in Notre Dame's late-season skid last year Brindza was unable to fight his slipping draft stock -- he was even described on NFL.com as "passive in kick coverage"…really? -- and was signed as a free agent by the Detroit Lions.

In a pleasant change of pace, Brindza was PERFECT in his preseason performances for the Lions kicking three field goals (all beyond 40 yards with a long of 51) and two extra points. He also punted three times, averaging 50.7 yards and landing two inside the 20-yard line. Unfortunately, Brindza was working behind kicker Matt Prater who signed a three-year, $9 million contract back in March and thus had only a slim chance at making the roster. The Lions capitalized on Brindza’s success, however, and dealt him to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for TE Tim Wright. In one game for the Bucs he quickly pulled away from competing kickers Connor Barth and Patrick Murray by going two for two in the rain from 55 and 57 yards. Awesome.

Brindza was signed to a three-year, $1.58 million contract and makes his regular-season NFL debut this weekend against the Tennessee Titans.

TE Ben Koyack

Koyack followed up his high school career as one of the more successful pass catching tight ends in Pennsylvania with four years at Notre Dame acting primarily as a complement to current NFL tight ends Tyler Eifert (Cincinnati Bengals) and Troy Niklas (Arizona Cardinals). He didn't wow scouts with his NFL Combine or Pro Day performances, and after being projected as mid-round prospect the Jacksonville Jaguars drafted Koyack in the 7th round with the 229th overall pick.

Over the course of four preseason games, Koyack caught five passes on seven targets for 22 yards and was signed to Jacksonville’s practice squad. The Jaguars’ starters include 2014 Broncos’ impact player Julius Thomas, established Jacksonville contributor Marcedes Lewis, and backups Nic Jacobs and Clay Harbor. Considering Jacksonville's depth at the position this is a relatively positive outcome for Koyack.

WR DaVaris Daniels

Re-examining DaVaris Daniels’ college career is something less than a pleasure as he put together some very exciting highlights but was occasionally singled out by the staff as a player who needed to find the right motivation and ultimately left Notre Dame after two academic suspensions. With his limited college experience and questions about his intangibles, as well as an unimpressive Pro Day, Daniels was viewed as a late-round or UDFA prospect and was signed after the draft by the Minnesota Vikings.

After making one catch for six yards in the preseason the Vikings cut Daniels as they slimmed their squad from 90 to 75 players. He was picked up by the New England Patriots but did not appear in their final preseason matchup against the Giants and did not make their roster or practice squad.

RB Cam McDaniel

Cam McDaniel preceded Joe Schmidt as Notre Dame's scrappy upstart poster boy, although he inadvertently fancied up his resume when his helmet was knocked off against USC in 2013 leading USA Today to label him as "ridiculously photogenic." Incidentally, this is exact same game in which Schmidt recorded his first major impact play for Notre Dame, a fourth-quarter pass breakup on third and long that more or less sealed the win for our beloved Fighting Irish. That may have been the evening the mantle was passed!

In any case, though Mike Mayock repeatedly praised McDaniel as a jack-of-all-trades utility player likely to make an NFL roster as a special teamer he was mostly passed over by scouts and analysts leading up to the draft. The Dallas Cowboys offered him an opportunity to try out during their minicamp in late spring but Cam wasn't able to catch on in Dallas and was not offered a spot on the 90-man roster.

Information for this article was gathered from ESPN.com, cfbstats.com, nfl.com, and onefootdown.com.

FanPosts are primarily for readers of One Foot Down to share and express information and commentary. The content provided doesn't always reflect the voice or collective thought of One Foot Down.